Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Friday, January 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 5:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:02. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 7:31 tomorrow morning.

February is the shortest month, even so the daylight hours throughout the month will be getting longer. Daylight hours will increase from 9 hours and 49 minutes Sunday to 11 hours and 7 minutes on the 28th. The sunrise time will decrease from 8:01 Sunday to 7:21 at month’s end. The sunset times will increase from 5:51 today to 6:29 on the 28th. Along with that the altitude of the Sun at noon will increase from 28.4 degrees today to 37.6 degrees at month’s end. It will be a degree lower, and daylight a few minutes shorter, for folks in the Straits area because they are a degree of latitude farther north. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City will be about 12:56 PM at mid month.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

February Evening Star Chart

February Morning Star Chart

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations, click here.

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star.
• Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
• Extend like a spike to Spica,
• The Summer Triangle is in red.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

			EST
	Morning	Twilight	Evening	Twilight	Dark	Night	Moon
Date	Astro.	Nautical	Nautical	Astro.	Start	End	Illum.
2026-02-01	6h22m	6h56m	19h00m	19h34m	–	–	100%
2026-02-02	6h21m	6h55m	19h01m	19h35m	–	–	98%
2026-02-03	6h20m	6h54m	19h03m	19h37m	19h37m	20h14m	94%
2026-02-04	6h19m	6h53m	19h04m	19h38m	19h38m	21h25m	88%
2026-02-05	6h18m	6h52m	19h05m	19h39m	19h39m	22h34m	80%
2026-02-06	6h17m	6h51m	19h06m	19h40m	19h40m	23h41m	72%
2026-02-07	6h16m	6h50m	19h08m	19h42m	19h42m	–	63%
2026-02-08	6h15m	6h49m	19h09m	19h43m	19h43m	0h48m	53%
2026-02-09	6h13m	6h47m	19h10m	19h44m	19h44m	1h55m	44%
2026-02-10	6h12m	6h46m	19h12m	19h45m	19h45m	3h01m	35%
2026-02-11	6h11m	6h45m	19h13m	19h47m	19h47m	4h04m	26%
2026-02-12	6h10m	6h43m	19h14m	19h48m	19h48m	5h01m	18%
2026-02-13	6h08m	6h42m	19h15m	19h49m	19h49m	5h50m	11%
2026-02-14	6h07m	6h41m	19h17m	19h50m	19h50m	6h07m	6%
2026-02-15	6h06m	6h39m	19h18m	19h52m	19h52m	6h06m	2%
2026-02-16	6h04m	6h38m	19h19m	19h53m	19h53m	6h04m	0%
2026-02-17	6h03m	6h37m	19h21m	19h54m	19h54m	6h03m	1%
2026-02-18	6h01m	6h35m	19h22m	19h56m	19h56m	6h01m	3%
2026-02-19	6h00m	6h34m	19h23m	19h57m	21h06m	6h00m	9%
2026-02-20	5h58m	6h32m	19h24m	19h58m	22h21m	5h58m	16%
2026-02-21	5h57m	6h31m	19h26m	19h59m	23h39m	5h57m	25%
2026-02-22	5h55m	6h29m	19h27m	20h01m	–	5h55m	35%
2026-02-23	5h54m	6h27m	19h28m	20h02m	0h59m	5h54m	47%
2026-02-24	5h52m	6h26m	19h30m	20h03m	2h19m	5h52m	58%
2026-02-25	5h51m	6h24m	19h31m	20h05m	3h33m	5h51m	69%
2026-02-26	5h49m	6h23m	19h32m	20h06m	4h37m	5h49m	79%
2026-02-27	5h47m	6h21m	19h34m	20h07m	5h28m	5h47m	87%
2026-02-28	5h46m	6h19m	19h35m	20h09m	–	–	94%

Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Feb  1  Su            Venus: 6.3° E
     1  Su   6:41 AM  Moon-Beehive: 1.3° S
     1  Su   5:09 PM  Full Moon
     2  Mo   9:48 PM  Moon-Regulus: 0.4° S
     3  Tu   2:18 PM  Moon Descending Node
     7  Sa   3:26 AM  Moon-Spica: 2° N
     9  Mo   7:43 AM  Last Quarter
    10  Tu  11:52 AM  Moon Apogee: 404600 km
    10  Tu  10:19 PM  Moon-Antares: 0.8° N
    12  Th   7:56 AM  Moon South Dec.: 28.4° S
    17  Tu   7:01 AM  New Moon
    17  Tu   7:13 AM  Annular Solar Eclipse
                      Southern Ocean and Antarctica
    18  We   1:19 AM  Moon Ascending Node
    19  Th  12:59 PM  Mercury Elongation: 18.1° E
    19  Th   6:54 PM  Moon-Saturn: 4.8° S
    23  Mo   9:43 PM  Moon-Pleiades: 1.2° S
    24  Tu   7:28 AM  First Quarter
    24  Tu   6:18 PM  Moon Perigee: 370100 km
    25  We   6:23 PM  Moon North Dec.: 28.4° N
    27  Fr   1:26 AM  Moon-Jupiter: 4° S
    28  Sa   3:07 PM  Moon-Beehive: 1.3° S
Mar  1  Su            Venus: 13° E

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html
If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU             Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
February, 2026    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Sun  1| 08:01a  05:51p  09:49 | 06:57p  06:55a |Full  Rise 05:41p  100%|
|Mon  2| 08:00a  05:53p  09:52 | 06:58p  06:54a |      Rise 07:00p   99%|
|Tue  3| 07:59a  05:54p  09:55 | 07:00p  06:53a |      Rise 08:14p   95%|
|Wed  4| 07:58a  05:55p  09:57 | 07:01p  06:52a |      Rise 09:25p   89%|
|Thu  5| 07:56a  05:57p  10:00 | 07:02p  06:51a |      Rise 10:34p   82%|
|Fri  6| 07:55a  05:58p  10:03 | 07:04p  06:50a |      Rise 11:41p   73%|
|Sat  7| 07:54a  06:00p  10:05 | 07:05p  06:49a |      Rise 12:48a   64%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  8| 07:52a  06:01p  10:08 | 07:06p  06:47a |      Rise 01:55a   55%|
|Mon  9| 07:51a  06:02p  10:11 | 07:07p  06:46a |L Qtr Rise 03:01a   46%|
|Tue 10| 07:50a  06:04p  10:14 | 07:09p  06:45a |      Rise 04:03a   36%|
|Wed 11| 07:48a  06:05p  10:16 | 07:10p  06:44a |      Rise 05:00a   28%|
|Thu 12| 07:47a  06:07p  10:19 | 07:11p  06:42a |      Rise 05:49a   19%|
|Fri 13| 07:45a  06:08p  10:22 | 07:13p  06:41a |      Rise 06:30a   12%|
|Sat 14| 07:44a  06:10p  10:25 | 07:14p  06:40a |      Rise 07:02a    7%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 15| 07:43a  06:11p  10:28 | 07:15p  06:38a |      Rise 07:29a    2%|
|Mon 16| 07:41a  06:12p  10:31 | 07:16p  06:37a |      Rise 07:51a    0%|
|Tue 17| 07:39a  06:14p  10:34 | 07:18p  06:36a |New   Set  06:39p    0%|
|Wed 18| 07:38a  06:15p  10:37 | 07:19p  06:34a |      Set  07:52p    3%|
|Thu 19| 07:36a  06:17p  10:40 | 07:20p  06:33a |      Set  09:05p    7%|
|Fri 20| 07:35a  06:18p  10:43 | 07:22p  06:31a |      Set  10:21p   14%|
|Sat 21| 07:33a  06:19p  10:46 | 07:23p  06:30a |      Set  11:38p   23%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 22| 07:31a  06:21p  10:49 | 07:24p  06:28a |      Set  12:58a   33%|
|Mon 23| 07:30a  06:22p  10:52 | 07:26p  06:26a |      Set  02:18a   44%|
|Tue 24| 07:28a  06:23p  10:55 | 07:27p  06:25a |F Qtr Set  03:33a   56%|
|Wed 25| 07:27a  06:25p  10:58 | 07:28p  06:23a |      Set  04:37a   67%|
|Thu 26| 07:25a  06:26p  11:01 | 07:29p  06:22a |      Set  05:27a   77%|
|Fri 27| 07:23a  06:28p  11:04 | 07:31p  06:20a |      Set  06:06a   86%|
|Sat 28| 07:21a  06:29p  11:07 | 07:32p  06:18a |      Set  06:35a   93%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise

Created using my LookingUp for MS-DOS app.